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Missouri football: Trimmer Tigers aim to stay in fat city

Derrick Washington was a fine tailback last year, as the Colorado Buffaloes could attest after he gained 99 yards on 22 carries in a 36-17 Missouri victory. But he aims for an even better season after dropping about 10 pounds.
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Tailback Derrick Washington thought he could be fueled by fries. And cheeseburgers. Anything fried his mother cooked could be put to good use on the floor of Missouri's Faurot Field.

Then his old teammates who reached the NFL started showing up. In the last two years, five went in the first three rounds. And guess what: They were all leaner than when they left college.

A bulb went on over coach Gary Pinkel's head — brighter than the stadium lights.

"We decided to look at our players and learn from that," he said. "We applied that not only to Derrick but a few other players. He's much quicker."

Washington ended last season at 220 pounds after gaining 865 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns. He entered camp this month at 210 pounds. This is his senior year. If he was going to ship out to the NFL, he needed to shape up.

"It was tough at the beginning because I couldn't eat any of the foods I like to eat," Washington said. "We had a lot of guys weighing in. If you weren't losing that weight, if you weren't doing what you were supposed to do, you were going to be moved out.

"I didn't want that to happen."

Pinkel didn't make the players run more stadium steps. He put them under the wing of Jana Heitmeyer, Missouri's director of sports nutrition. She conducted a nutrition assault. Besides personal consultation with the first- and second-string players, she talked to them about nutrition for five minutes during every weight-training session.

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She handed out nutritional flyers every week. She would even walk into the dining hall and take evil foods off their plate and replace it with something sensible.

She taught them simple lessons. For instance, if after dinner you can use your napkin to grease an International Harvester, it won't help your performance.

The players bought in.

"I get phone calls at 2 a.m: 'I don't know what to have, cheese and crackers, pizza rolls or just go to bed,' " Heit-meyer said. "I'd say, 'Hang up and go back to sleep.' "

"Our players have really gotten into nutrition and eating properly," Pinkel said. "That has a lot to do with it. It has a lot to do also with, obviously, cardio and working out. It's been a real plus for us."

He still weighs 240 pounds, but his reduced body fat has made him noticeably quicker in the pocket. Unlike most college guys, his diet wouldn't embarrass a carny. He just changed his eating habits.

"It's just timing," Gabbert said. "If you're going to eat late at night, just drink a bottle of water. Don't go get a steak or a chicken breast. That's just going to be extra weight you put on."

Pinkel had been ahead of the quickness curve on this all along. While he was an assistant at Washington from 1979-90, then-head coach Don James sacrificed size for speed.

James moved cornerbacks to safety, safeties to middle linebacker and linebackers to defensive end. Soon, Washington had one of the best defenses in the country.

"The thing I found out in the NFL is any little edge you can get quicknesswise helps you, and that's what we tried to incorporate," Pinkel said. "We have good team speed. We run well. But hopefully we'll be a little bit quicker and run a little faster than we have in the past."

In Missouri's offense, quickness is as important as face masks. This is a finesse team that has reached five consecutive bowl games with a furious passing attack, fleet receivers and sure-handed tight ends.

Pinkel is rebuilding his receiving corps, but with Gabbert and Washington as anchors, his offense won't go into reverse. If this nutritional kick kicks in, maybe it'll move up a speed.

"Even though guys have good body-fat percentage for his weight," Pinkel said, "he can also be a little quicker if he loses a little bit more weight, and that's what we found."

But these are college kids. How are you going to get them to stop on the way home and buy a bag of carrot sticks instead of Cheetos? Maybe they'll police themselves.

Rutland remembers cheating once two weeks before camp started. He went to Sonic Drive-In. After all that lean chicken, fruit and steamed vegetables, did he get sick?

"I did," he said. "I thought it was a myth. I went right back to my old diet."

Missouri at a glance

2009: 8-5, 4-4 league (tied for second in North), lost to Navy in Texas Bowl, 35-13.

Returning starters: Eight offense, eight defense.

Strength: PK Grant Ressel. The junior set an NCAA record for accuracy by hitting 26-of-27 (.963) and made Sports Illustrated's first-team All-America team. He hit all 39 extra points.

Weakness: Secondary. Only leaky Texas A&M had a worse pass defense in the Big 12. Tigers have all four starters back, but they were 104th in the country, giving up 251.5 yards per game on 64 percent passing.

Player with pressure: DE Jacquies Smith. Aldon Smith set a school record with 11 1/2 sacks last year and will be getting numerous double teams this year. They'll continue if Jacquies Smith doesn't cause havoc on the other side.

Key game: Nov. 26 vs. Kansas at Kansas City, Mo. The last three games at Arrowhead Stadium have been decided by 13 points total. It's simply one of the wildest rivalries in the country.

Did you know: Missouri is the only North Division school to go to bowls in the last five seasons.

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